Nicolas Lamperin closing in on big names for ASB Classic

Lulu Sun will be the star of January’s ASB Classic, but tournament director Nicolas Lamperin has been ensuring plenty of other big names in the draw for the WTA and ATP tournaments.

Sun will get a heroes’ welcome the first time she takes to Centre Court at the ASB Classic this summer, thanks to her incredible run from qualifying to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.

But the two weeks of tennis at Stanley Street won’t be based around just one player and Lamperin was at Wimbledon talking to players and agents about coming to Auckland as part of their build-ups for the Australian Open and he’s confirmed he has two men’s players in the top 10 interested in coming to Auckland next year but admitted it will be tough to lure Coco Gauff back.

“I’ve got one or two good [men’s] options in the top 10 and some more in the top 20,” Lamperin said.

“But it all depends if I sign a top 10 player, because it has an impact on the budget. 

“This is why it takes time, you’ve got to define your priorities and see where you end up financially because players aren’t cheap.”

Of the players currently in the top 10, a line can be put through Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, while the tournament has had a policy of not chasing Russian players since the Ukraine invasion, which rules out Daniil Medvedev.

It would be surprising to see Jannik Sinner or Alexander Zverev wanting to play in Auckland the week before the Australian Open, while Alex de Minaur would likely want all of his preparations for his home grand slam to be on the other side of the Tasman.

That leaves world No 7 Hubert Hurkacz from Poland, Norway’s Casper Ruud (No 8) or Grigor Dimitrov (No 10) as possible options.

Hurkacz and Ruud have played in Auckland before so they have a history of using the ASB Classic as their final hit out before the Australian.

Although a deal hasn’t been done, it would be surprising not to see Auckland-raised Cameron Norrie back again.

He’s had a tougher year on the Tour in 2024 and is at 42 in the world but it has become customary for him to come ‘home’ at the start of each year.

“It’s a different situation with Cam, because he’s been struggling with his form over the first six months of the year,” Lamperin said. 

“But we don’t know where he’ll end up and his form might be picking up. Apart from that, I’m not too worried about his ranking.

“Cam still has that link with the tournament and the crowd, so for me it doesn’t really matter where his ranking is.”

For the women’s ASB Classic, Lamperin again has to negotiate his way around the WTA’s rules for 250-level tournaments, which limits the ASB Classic to being allowed to have a top 10 player only if she is the defending champion.

The ASB Classic can have two players ranked 11-30, but only one other if Sun makes it into the top 30 by the end of the year.

However, Lamperin admitted it might be challenging to get Gauff, the two-time defending champion back again.

“I don’t have an answer, all I know is that it’s going to get harder every year,” he said.

“She’s the highest-paid female athlete in the world and we need to be realistic that we’re only a WTA 250 tournament and there is strong competition that week, between the WTA 500 in Brisbane and the United Cup, which offers huge prize money and points.”

Lamperin isn’t too concerned about the WTA’s restrictions as there are plenty of big-name players outside the top 30, including Naomi Osaka, who is at 102.

“She’s a huge name, but there’s more,” he said. 

“There is Bianca Andreescu, Paula Badosa, Emma Raducanu and Belinda Bencic is coming back and Caroline Wozniacki is still there.

“If you put all of those names together you have a pretty spectacular field, but we do need to be selective about who we want to get.”

“So I’m very optimistic about our chances of building a strong field again.”

* The women’s ASB Classic takes place from December 30 to January 5, followed by the men’s tournament from January 6 to 11.